The arts in Colleton County are critical to our daily life. We depend on them for enhancing who we are as people and for adding value to our lives. Moreover, we depend on the arts in our community for our culture. Colleton has always been a mecha, bringing together the arts with environmental resources and our own southern traditions. Our antique shops, our artisans’ centers and sites and our field-to-table approach for food and crafts are a vital part of our collective personality.
It is critical that we keep our arts community thriving and growing.
We encourage Colleton residents to participate in the arts classes and events offered frequently to us by the Colleton County Arts Council, the Walterboro Museum and the Colleton Civic Center.
Further, we are also asking our City of Walterboro municipal leaders to take the arts into consideration with any plans they might forming about empty commercial space in our city. Recently, the City of Walterboro purchased a vacant building located in the city’s historic district. This particular space is the former Walterboro Ford retail site. Its’ potential is limitless.
As a city, we need residential housing and apartment housing. We also need to encourage the arts in our community by adding more space for artisans and community development. There must be a way to combine both along our downtown district.
We should combine these two needs of housing and the arts when making plans for the now city-owned commercial space.
As conversations continue to happen about what our entire community needs, we ask those elected leaders to remember that the arts are a necessary component for our lifestyle in Colleton County.
